Chapter 11 sees us join Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem. He sends two of his disciples ahead to bring him a colt. He enters Jerusalem and goes into the temple. Jesus overturns the tables of the money-changers and cleanses the temple.
The fig tree he earlier curses for bearing no fruit has withered.
The chapter finishes with the chief priests and the scribes challenging Jesus’s authority.
Reading Mark in Advent is an 18-part podcast series that sees us upload a chapter of Mark’s Gospel each weekday of the season.
With a global pandemic sweeping the world and lockdowns and restrictions placed on our everyday living – not to mention patterns of worship and prayer – this is very much “the Word in Lockdown”.
But the Word of God is never locked down, isolated and contained. As Pope Francis says:
“The word of God is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12); it does not die, nor does it age, but it remains for ever (cf. 1 Peter 1:25). It stays young in the presence of all that passes away (cf. Matthew 25:35) and preserves those who put it into practice from inner aging.”
